We have been lucky to be chosen by Food & Wine magazine as part of their Best American Artisans series. That is a big big..HUGE honor for us!Liza of food. curated spent the day with us to get a glimpse as to how and why we make our Harissa. Click on the picture below and it will take you straight to our Harissa page where you can watch what she captured so beautifuly.

(if you are not familiar with her work yet, make sure you check her out- her videos are addictive)

screenshot from Food &Wine website

All things couscous...

Make sure you keep on eye out for our new couscous page coming up next week, we are so excited to share it with you. Finally, all your questions about couscous will be answered. Until then, here are 3 things you don't know about couscous from yours truly as written in Food & Wine expert guide.

Upcoming classes alert!

We have few classes scheduled at Havens Kitchen and at Whole Foods Bowery culinary center.We will be teaching The Art of Couscous Making and a special class 'All About Harissa'.This class, a first of its kind, is dedicated solely in showing you the best and varied ways to use Harissa.Once you learn how to use this magical ingredient to get that special oomph in your cookingit will really be your secret weapon :)

We want to share with you a fun recipe!

The morrocan name for it is ‘kwari bilbeid’ but we just call it by the simple name of ‘Surprise Meatballs’. Truth be told, when hearing about this dish for the first time I wasn’t really sure about the addition of an egg in my meatballs. But when something works, you just don’t ask any questions!a perfect comfort dish for winter days. Enjoy!

For Tomato sauce:

1. Tomato sauce- sauté garlic with oil in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes, making sure you closely watch the garlic so it doesn’t burn. Add the Harissa while continuing to cook and mix for another minute. Add the tomatoes and season with salt. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Boil a pot of water and cook the quail eggs for 4 minutes. Peel them and set aside.

3. Meatballs- soak the white bread in water, squeeze the liquid out and grate. In a bowl knead well the meat, bread, egg, spices and Harissa. Gently roll meat mixture into 16 equal-sized balls. Place 1 quail egg in the center of each meat portion and gently shape into balls. Place in the tomato sauce and cook for 15 minutes until meatballs are fully cooked.

4. If you feel like going the extra mile, I like to serve it with thinly sliced fried garlic, a nice crunchy element. (it's just as tasty without). Serve over rice, couscous or just with a nice piece of fresh bread.